Ride the Storm: Navigating Through Unstable Periods / Katerina Rudko (Belka G...
Outsourcing Contact Serices Overview
1. An eBook by DATAMARK, Inc.
www.datamark.net
An Executive Toolkit
Outsourced Contact
Center Services
2. 2Outsourcing Contact Center Services
Intro: The outsourcing decision
Gaining access to technology and expertise
Benefits of consolidating contact centers
Benefits of relocating
Exceeding customer expectations in a multichannel world
Making it happen: Best practices and considerations for implementation
3. 3Outsourcing Contact Center Services
At a certain point in an organization’s growth, the “writing on the
wall” becomes painfully clear:
An in-house business function such as contact center services
(the focus of this eBook) becomes an increasing drain on the bottom
line; customer complaints of slow or unresponsive service increase;
agent turnover creeps up; and it becomes harder to find managers
willing to deal with the headaches of day-to-day operations.
If operating contact center services in-house is turning into a
distraction from your core business, then it may be time to explore
outsourcing the function to an experienced, specialist provider.
For company leaders considering this important decision, this
executive toolkit provides useful introductory information and links to in-
depth resources to pave a path to success.
A starting point is a review of the benefits that can come from
turning over contact center services to an outside provider. Benefits
include lower costs, the ability to quickly ramp up to handle seasonal
volume, and an ability to return your focus to core business. Read the
“Top 10 Reasons to Outsource Your Call Center” to learn more.
4. 4Outsourcing Contact Center Services
For many companies—even large, established ones—outsourcing
may be something that has never been part of the organizational culture.
Or it may have been attempted in the past, with mixed results.
Turning over a key business function to an outside provider is a
big step that requires a number of careful considerations and a great
deal of confidence in the new teams you’ll be working with.
If outsourcing is new to your organization, or if you need a
refresher on best practices for engaging with a third party provider, read
“Business Process Outsourcing 101: Five Steps for Success.” The
eBook covers these topics:
1. Top reasons to outsource
2. Identifying ideal processes for outsourcing.
3. Conducting a cost analysis to determine if
outsourcing makes financial sense.
4. Choosing an outsourcing location.
5. Achieving a successful and sustainable BPO
engagement.
5. 5Outsourcing Contact Center Services
Access to the latest contact center technology is one major
benefit of working with a service provider.
The provider invests in facilities, equipment and software, helping
your organization avoid significant up-front costs.
In regard to software platforms, today’s innovative
communications solutions are typically delivered through the cloud. A
flexible cloud-based solution allows for quick ramp-up of agents for
seasonal volumes, as well as regular software upgrades, helping to
continually improve service, reporting and analytics.
Check out “Five Trends that are Moving Call Centers to the
Cloud” to understand why more and more organizations are adopting
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) contact center solutions.
6. 6Outsourcing Contact Center Services
The annual Call Center Week Conference and Expo brings
together the industry’s leading technology vendors and some new
players eager to introduce their solutions to contact center service
providers. DATAMARK developed a two-part information brief series to
round-up the major technology trends exhibited at the conference.
Part 1 highlights:
• Cloud-based contact center software platforms
• Data security and customer authentication solutions
• Social media applications
• Gamification solutions to improve performance
• Using artificial intelligence to speed up problem resolution
Part 2 takes a closer look at:
• Language interpreting audio and video services
• Callback technologies to reduce wait times
• Workforce management platforms
• CRM and analytics solutions
7. 7Outsourcing Contact Center Services
As they grow, many companies will add customer service
agents in locations geographically close to customers—at regional
offices or distribution centers, for example. Acquisition of other
companies also may bring in agents at offices scattered geographically.
However, at some point it may make sense to bring scattered
service centers under one roof, so to speak, and bring consistency to
training, technology and customer service culture. Consolidating, or
centralizing, contact center operations also delivers many other benefits,
including lower costs, streamlining of management and technical
support, and the ability to free up facilities for core, income-producing
business.
Read “The Benefits of Centralizing Contact Centers” to learn
about conducting a cost analysis to determine if consolidation makes
sense, and more reasons why centralizing locations can deliver peace of
mind while improving customer service.
8. 8Outsourcing Contact Center Services
Many times, when the decision to consolidate centers arises, it is
also a good time to consider outsourcing the function to a specialized
provider that already has the necessary facilities, technology platform
and agent training systems in place.
Here are just a few benefits that are possible by consolidating
contact center operations with an outsourcing services provider:
1. Gain economies of scale: Costs for facilities, equipment
and software come down on a per-agent basis when
operations ramp up.
2. Lower wage and real estate costs: Shift operations from
expensive cities to communities with lower costs of
living.
3. Reduce travel costs: Eliminate flights, hotel stays and
car rentals needed to check on distant contact centers.
4. Improve management efficiency: reduce the number of
directors, supervisors and analysts needed for
oversight.
To learn more, check out the infographic “Understanding the
Benefits of Contact Center Consolidation.”
9. 9Outsourcing Contact Center Services
The path to outsourcing your contact center services will
inevitably lead to the decision of where to locate the facility. Will it
remain in-house, but with an outsourced staff? Off-site in the same
community? Or can it be moved to a location with lower wages and an
overall lower cost of living?
These are some of the questions to consider. Relocating your
contact center services can lead to other advantages, such as access to
a workforce that speaks English with a neutral accent, as found in the
American Midwest and Southwest, and abroad in the Philippines.
The American Southwest, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico
border, offers a bilingual workforce of agents who can switch effortlessly
between English and Spanish on the same call, and who have a deep
knowledge of Hispanic culture. Read more about the importance of
language accents in “Selecting Call Center Services: Locate the Neutral
Accent.”
10. 10Outsourcing Contact Center Services
Connecting With the Hispanic Market
Part One: http://bit.ly/1b8eZ4P
Connecting With the Hispanic Market
Part Two: http://bit.ly/1DfXmMg
Outsourced Contact Centers in
Mexico-A Closer Look:
http://bit.ly/1wEHSiE
Many companies are taking
advantage of contact center services
located along the U.S.-Mexico
border staffed by bilingual agents
who speak neutral-accented English
and Spanish. These agents also
have an in-depth knowledge and
cultural understanding effective for
engaging with the U.S. Hispanic
consumer market, which wields $1.2
trillion in purchasing power. Read
these white papers to learn more:
11. 11Outsourcing Contact Center Services
It’s not just Generation Y and Millennials: a growing number of
tech-savvy baby boomers and seniors are embracing multichannel
customer communication. Consumers of all backgrounds are turning to
companies for service and support—and to offer praise and
complaints— through voice, email, web chat, and through social media
channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
Outsourced contact center services must be prepared to engage
with customers through all channels, and with a variety of languages—
primarily English and Spanish in the U.S. and Latin American markets.
Leading contact center service providers such as DATAMARK
have responded to this era of customer interaction by investing in cloud-
based multichannel communications technology, and by strategically
locating facilities in the U.S. Southwest and along the U.S.-Mexico
border to engage the growing (and very youthful) U.S. Hispanic
consumer market.
Learn more about the multichannel trend by reading about one
analyst’s prediction in “Social Media Customer Service to Equal Phone
Call Interactions in Five Years.”
12. 12Outsourcing Contact Center Services
2014 Contact Center Preferences
Survey:
http://bit.ly/1F9NS4k
Infographic: The Multichannel
Experience: http://bit.ly/1CddUmA
At DATAMARK, we regularly
reach out to consumers through
surveys to gauge their attitudes
toward customer contact centers and
their preferred channels for resolving
issues.
This kind of feedback is
critical, because it is used to develop
near-term and long-term strategies
for delivering outstanding
multichannel customer service.
Check out some recent results from
our customer surveys:
13. 13Outsourcing Contact Center Services
Armed with knowledge of internal capabilities, strengths and
weaknesses, a company should seek an outsourcing partner who also
serves as a best-practices consultant. This partner can develop a
strategic plan for a successful outsourcing engagement--a plan that
includes a business process analysis to map out the organization’s
customer service workflow and related processes. The partner can
prepare a solution that includes new workflows to improve efficiency and
the ability to serve customers across all channels.
Read more about a high-level view of multichannel strategies that
take into consideration legal requirements, quality assurance, content for
customers, performance metrics and other critical elements of the
customer service environment in “Top 8 Best Practices for Multichannel
Customer Contact.”
14. 14Outsourcing Contact Center Services
Take the next step and open the channels of
customer service excellence.
The time is right to engage with a partner who can deliver all
elements of a high-performance contact center.
These include:
•Savings through the consolidation of geographically dispersed
centers and relocation to communities with lower costs of living.
•A high-skill bilingual workforce ready to engage with your
customers and proudly represent your brand.
•A provider that understands data collection, analytics and
forecasting, and continuous process improvement.
Learn more by reading “Best Practices and Considerations for
Multichannel Contact Center Implementation.”
